The kitten who was struggling to survive at the local animal shelter I was volunteering at while temporarily residing in Illinois is now going to be heading back to Washington with me. She will be 8 weeks by the time we travel. I have called the airlines and asked these questions, but just wanted to verify with people with experience to make sure. I would hate to get to the airport and be told to leave because I am missing a document they told me I didn't need over the phone.

The airline says that if within 48 states (the 2 you need one in are Alaska & Hawaii) you do NOT need a health certificate or any documentation to take your pet on the plane. You can just take your pet on through security and onto the plane with no identification or documentation. This sounded weird to me, like that just couldn't be correct, but I called back to talk to someone else the next day and she said the same thing.

Does anyone have experience with this?

She will only be 8 weeks old, isn't that too young to get the rabies vaccine? I am thinking about getting a health certificate anyway, but I believe she will be too young to get the rabies vaccine.

I would get a health certificate just in case - better to have it and not need it. And yes, she will be too young for rabies vaccination - when I was importing a dog they said 12 weeks and older needed to be vax'ed and that's still much younger than I'd prefer.

I flew with Paris from her breeder in Las Vegas to here in Toronto. She flew as my carry-on and it was super easy, no issues whatsoever. She was still too young for vaccinations too (she was 8 weeks old as well), so we just required the health certificate at check-in and at our destination (and her receipt for taxes, but you're staying domestic so you obviously won't need that). You'll be fine!